Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The well-being framework refers to the issue of quality of employment. In that context, I draw the Taoiseach's attention once again to issues that will be discussed later this evening during the debate on the Finance (No. 2) Bill 2023. Deputies from Sinn Féin and the Labour Party and I have put forward amendments to the Bill advocating on behalf of people who work in the arts, such as in the film industry, who experience high levels of poverty, financial hardship and employment insecurity. Workers in that industry including actors, performers, directors, stage crew, film crew and so on have to endure this, even though the industry receives huge amounts of public money. They do not have quality employment and training.

This is because film producers who get public money force them to sign buy-out contracts, under which they have to sign away their rights to future royalties and residuals which any actor, performer or writer will say are some of the few ways in which they can potentially benefit from the success of their work. They are being forced to sign those rights away, however. They have been campaigning strongly for the Government to end the use of buy-out contracts by film producers who are financed essentially by the public purse. Similarly, film crew often have to endure working for decades on fixed-term contracts under which they never have any security of employment and are vulnerable to blacklisting. They are never given contracts of indefinite duration and do not get sick pay, holiday pay or pensions. Is that the way to treat our artists and others who work in such an important industry as the film industry is?

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